Some time ago I was sent a proto type Ti-goat cylinder stove for testing. The stove is basically the same as the production model with the exception of a 3-inch stove port. The production stove uses a 2 3/8 port and pipe. Here is some info from the Ti-goat site:
http://www.titaniumgoat.com/cstove.html
"The new Vortex Cylinder Stove, takes down smaller, weighs less, and it puts out more heat than stoves twice its size. While
wood burning stoves are not what some would call "ultra light" , this one is as light as they get. While not as bomb proof as
our box vortex stove, the titanium body section, cylindrical shape, and damper, make this stove burn very efficiently. The
Vortex Cylinder Stove is very basic, its been stripped down to pure light weight function, while still retaining big performance.
You get the same stainless roll up pipe that is on our box stoves, but in a smaller diameter, along with the same great heat
transfer properties of titanium in the roll up portion of the body. I know, how do you cook on a round top stove? No problem
we have pots that conform to the stoves. The pots are the Wally World grease pot with an arc formed into the bottom.
Standard features:
-Stainless roll up pipe
-Titanium roll up body
-Damper
-Storage bags
-Snow platform/vegetation
protection patch
Options:
-Form fit pot
-Titanium pipe
Specifications:
Weight: 11oz stove body,
15oz pipe assembly (6.5'
pipe for Vertex 6) 3.5oz for
bags and snow platform.
Size: 6.25" diameter by
12"
long, for 368 cubic inches.
Price: $175 with 6.5' pipe"
The stove and pipe packs down very small.
Here is a view of all the components. These include a rollup pipe, Ti rollup stove body, wire loops for stove and pipe, stove ends, door flap, damper, inline spark screen and wing nuts. I added a collar from my Kifaru stove as this increased the spark screens to 3 and slowed the whole system down. The price paid is a few seconds of smoke on start up but this tends to happen to all my stoves when using more than two screens. Removing one or two of the Kifaru screens on start-up alleviates this minor issue.
Setup of this stove can be difficult. I would compare it to pushing two soda cans together when making an alcohol stove. It is either an exercise of humiliation or a simple affair. After a few times I can set up the stove and pipe in about 5-minutes. But you don’t want to the do this the first time in the field.
This pipe was taken from my Paratipi setup. It is 3-inches by 5-foot. The one from Ti-goat is similar. Setting up the pipe is easy with practice. Care must be taken not to cut ones fingers on the sharp edge. This danger is reduced after a few burns. All one needs to do is slide the wire loops over the pipe and attach a wing nut at the end. After that the inline spark screen is pushed into the pipe and the damper slides into the stove end. The inline spark screen must be pushed at least 5 inches into the pipe to keep it from sliding down into the damper. The spark arrester is non removable during operation however the heat appears to make it self cleaning. That looks to be the case anyways. I will have to do further testing with some softwood to see if this holds true.
The stoves weight feels about the same as a full soda can. Here I am picking it up with just my fingers.
The door opening is small and there is not a lot of room to feed thicker sticks. The best way to fire it up is using a cotton ball soaked with Vaseline.
It does not take long before a good fire is burning. The round opening and shape of the stove increases the efficiency of the draft.
The door flap on mine is a proto type but I don’t think it has been much improved on the production model. This is a bare bones UL system. I find the door works best if placed on the ground to cover the opening. The downside being it will rattle a bit as the air flows around it.
Cooking on a cylinder shaped stove is no easy task. The stove does come with a modified Wally world aluminum grease pot. It has a bend in the bottom conforming to the shape of the stove. The pot is stable but lacks a handle. There are commercially available pot handles so I will be purchase one in a few weeks and report back. It is possible to balance an unmodified cup on the top but it can be dumped if someone is careless.
Disassembly is very fast. Just unhook one of the spring wire loops and the stove comes apart in seconds.
The stove's heat output is instant and extreme. The thin Ti body and Stainless pipe transfers heat very efficiently. My tent heated up almost instantly. But the thin stove does not retain heat like a heaver sheet metal stove. It seems to have a reasonable burn time for such a small fire box. Never timed this but think it must be around ½ hour or maybe more.
I do have one concern that needs to be worked out. I added a fiberglass shield to protect the ground as the stove is just an inch above the earth. I believe this is the same material that both Kifaru and Ti-goat use in their stove jacks and may have been included in the production model for a ground cloth. However my testing has shown the heat of the stove burns the fiberglass and the ground under it. The result is a slow but steady smoldering. I will have to work out another solution for this. Maybe put the stove on a few rocks or make a wire stand.
Pros:
1. It is the most UL tent stove I have ever seen.
2. Fast heating.
3. Super small pack down.
4. Comes with a damper.
5. Interesting spark inline spark screen.
Cons:
1. Expensive
2. Less durable than other UL stoves on the market.
3. Hard to setup without practice.
4. Challenging to cook on.
5. Does not retain heat once the fire burns down.
6. Sits low to the ground.
Conclusions:
I need more testing to determine overall durability. But wow thing is so UL. I can’t recommend this stove 100% without more experience in the field. As it stands this is my second trip using the Ti-goat stove beyond a few burns in the back yard. There are some things I need to work out but like the performance. A tent stove is not for everyone. But for those in colder areas a stove can provide warmth, light and cooking during the worse weather.
For cooking support, what if you used two more of those wire supports spaced a few inches apart at the top? That might be enough to hold a flat bottomed pot steady. Obviously not as stable as a flat cooking surface, but at least you could use your nice Ti cookware without banging curves into it.
